What You Might Not Have Known About David Onley

It seems like David Onley has been around forever. And with his appointment as the new Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, you’ll be seeing a lot more of him. Onley is best known as a personality on CityNews, but he has a varied and extensive background rich with experience that he gained long before joining the station in 1984.

He survived polio as a child and while the after effects still sometimes slow him down, they never get in his way. David was a curious child with an insatiable appetite for knowledge, which he credits to his late father, a lawyer who instilled a love of learning. He used that to work his way to a degree in political science at the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus, where he also became student council president in the 1970s and discovered his love of college radio.

But he always had an enduring fascination with science and space, leading to the publication of his first book “Shuttle” in 1981. He went on tour pumping the book, visiting radio and TV stations throughout the city. And that’s when several executives in the industry first took notice of this budding star. He was hired to contribute a weekly piece called “A Step Ahead” on a nationally syndicated radio show called “Sunday Sunday” out of CFTR in the early 80s. From there, he moved on to CFRB, hosting a weekly science show, and then to the now defunct CKO national radio news network. He joined Citytv a year later, standing out on Queen St. West in the worst conditions as a weather forecaster.

And then came 1986, and a moment that changed many lives. When the space shuttle Challenger blew up, David’s extensive knowledge of the craft and all that research for his book came to the fore, and he guided viewers through the intricacies of O-rings and throttle up, to explain the terrible tragedy to viewers. He recalls how the station desperately tried to find a model of the shuttle, and finally located one of the last ones in the city – only to have it break just seconds before going on air. But nothing rattled him, and he used the visual aid to illustrate what might have gone wrong just after launch.

After that, David never looked back, serving as the first morning anchor on the newly debuting Breakfast Television in 1989, turning his talents to Education Specialist and then Science and Technology Specialist, before turning to CP24 as a popular anchor and host of the computer and Internet show “Home Page”. It’s unclear who will replace him on that program on a permanent basis.

David is married to  singer Ruth Ann, and has three sons. He admits he wouldn’t have been able to take on his new government post without their support. “Had my wife Ruth not supported it right from the very get-go … I wouldn’t have considered it. I wouldn’t have gone forward because it is a real strain in that sense. But, with the boys being the ages they are now and in university and going into Grade 12, I hope there’s going to be an energy that we can bring to the office as being the first boomer to occupy the position of Lieutenant Governor.”

It’s been a long journey from there to here. And David’s looking forward to a ride that in his mind is only just beginning.